Snooker player Kamal Chawla says aid from government kept his career going

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BHOPAL: Kamal Chawla, silver medallist of 6Red World Snooker Championships on Sunday said he would have left the game long back had Madhya Pradesh government not extended financial help.

Chawla said he was all set to leave the game in 2011 due to financial crunch but Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan stopped him from doing so and extended monetary help to continue the training.

"I was all set to leave the game due to financial constraint. However, chief minister Chouhan stopped me from doing so and offered financial support for the continuation of my training," said Chawla, who returned to his hometown Bhopal today after winning silver medal in 6Red World Snooker Championships held in Egypt from August 1-10.

He said that the training of this game is very costly and it was hard for him to bear the expenses being a member of middle class family.

Chawla urged the centre and states to extend help to the players, who leave the game in the middle due to financial crunch.

"Apart from the couple of top players, all others have to go overseas for training at their own cost. So, the players are unable to take high level training of this game.

"I request the governments to open snooker academy in different cities. At present, the only snooker academy is located in Delhi," he added.

Chawla said he took part in high level training in UK between 2011 and 2015 with the help from Madhya Pradesh government and this enabled him to win a medal in 6Red World Snooker Championship.

He said, "I am the third Indian player who entered the World Snooker finals. Earlier, O B Agarwal (1984) and Pankaj Advani (2003, 2014, 2015) entered the final of the World Snooker Championship."

In Egypt, Chawla was defeated by defending champion Darren Morgan of Welsh. In this Championship, 168 players from 53 countries had participated.

Earlier, Chawla had won bronze medals in World Snooker Championships and World Team Snooker Championship.